Finding the perfect employees

August 3rd, 2016 by

Coco Esser

Finding the Perfect Employees

You’d be living under a rock if you didn’t know that the construction industry has been facing an issue of labor – both in quantity and quality. While GuildQuality doesn’t hire skilled trade laborers for our business, we recognize among our peers and customers that the issue of finding, and keeping, quality labor is top of mind. One way we’ve tried to help address this is with the roll-out of a new product called GuildQuality Crew, which puts the spotlight on talented people working in our industry. Another way we see the best companies in our industry succeeding is by sharing experiences among peers, learning from best practices and mistakes made by others, and working together to shape future generations of tradespeople.

This post features one of our Survey Coaches, Mary Kelly, sharing the wisdom she has learned in attracting and hiring top talent for our survey team. As front-line folks representing both GuildQuality and the thousands of members we serve, it’s incredibly important that our surveyors are professional, courteous, friendly, and customer-focused. This group also does not work in the office, so we put a lot of time into developing ways to effectively manage dispersed teams of employees. Bonus points for those of you who have recognized the similarities to your own workforce! Read on to learn how we’ve tackled this obstacle.

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Mary KellySurvey CoachBeen with GuildQuality: 3 YearsFun Fact: Taught high school English for five years

Just as many of you are probably in a constant state of seeking out great talent for different roles within your business, our leaders in the Surveying department are constantly building a pipeline of new and qualified talent as current surveyors graduate, build their families, and retire.

So how do we build an entirely remote workforce while maintaining excellent standards of quality? First, we rely heavily on an employee referral program. Since our surveyors and other full-time employees at GuildQuality know exactly what it takes to be a successful team member, we have found that a large number of our best surveyors have found their way to our team through friends and family who already work with us.

In an ever-evolving work environment that has seen large portions of part-time staffers defining “the office” not as the traditional office environment, but rather in their homes, clear and sustainable hiring guidelines have become a huge necessity to the surveying team here at GuildQuality.

By clearly defining our company culture, we have developed a “roadmap” to guide our decision-making process when hiring. For example, there are clear attributes we seek in people that we know lead to success in our company: being friendly, committed, and resourceful are among those. Likewise, there are attributes that we’ve seen do not mesh with our company: being insecure, uncommunicative, arrogant, or distrustful.

With a team that is out there independently representing GuildQuality and our Guildmembers, trust is another incredibly important aspect of our culture. We have created an empowered work environment that allows employees to make decisions and do great work with minimal oversight. We as a company trust you to have the company’s and the Guildmember’s best interests at heart; we trust you to let your team know when something needs attention; we trust you to step up and lend a helping hand to another member of the team. Because we operate under the principle of trusting our employees, the hiring process is crucial to our success.

We’ve honed in on exactly what we’re looking for, and recently, we identified some familiar faces that represent both who we seek for the GuildQuality team, and who we avoid when we’re hiring.

Here’s who we’re looking for:

A Leslie Knope

– Dedicated: Willing to go above and beyond the minimum– Smart and Resourceful: Can problem solve on their own and make quick decisions– Experienced: has worked in customer service before coming to GuildQuality– Friendly: Willing to talk to anyone and everyone

Here is who we don’t want:

A Ron Swanson

– Bare minimum: Only does what’s asked; no desire to do more– Unfriendly: Easily put in a bad mood by a survey interaction or personal issues– Short Fused: Does not respond well to frustrated customers; can be abrasive– Stubborn: Does not take constructive criticism or instruction well; resistant to change

Having these clear, reliable visuals has helped us quickly evaluate resumes at first sight and has also given us keywords to listen for from professional references. Thanks, “Parks and Recreation!”

Whether you’re seeking to hire full-time or part-time, sharing an image and a clear definition of what you’re looking for can be a powerful and easy recall reminder for your current employees who may provide referrals and your hiring team. It also gives applicants a recognizable depiction of what you’re seeking.

So what person, fictional or real, do you want to work for your company and who would you rather go to your competition? Tweet us your picks at @GuildQuality!